DIY Vintage Christmas Bells

Have you noticed those vintage Christmas bells that everybody has these days?
Some people call them "goat bells".
Some people call them "sheep bells:"
I’ve even heard them called "camel bells". I'm not sure what they’re called.
But they look beautiful hanging at different heights and when added to wreaths and swags.
They look good on a door knob. They look good on a newel post.
The only problem I have found, is that they are fairly expensive. I brainstormed for a while and came up with an easy way to get around this, though.
But you’re gonna have to trust me on this.
It might be a little out of your comfort zone. What I mean is, we are going to use toilet paper tubes.
I know, right?
Are you doing OK?
OK, let’s go.
- Cut the toilet paper roll kind of in half, meaning off center.
- Take the larger piece and cut it open lengthwise.
- Cut off a quarter inch strip off one of the long edges, I suggest using the edge that has the factory cut so that it’s extra straight.
- Taking your other piece, use it as a stencil to trace a circle into the piece that you have left. Make your circle about a quarter inch bigger than your stencil piece.
- Cut slits a quarter inch apart and a quarter inch deep all the way around to make little tabs.
- Fold each of the tabs over to form a little cap.
- Glue this little cap to the other piece of the toilet paper roll. Cover the edge that you cut yourself, leaving the factory cut edge to act as the bottom of your bell.
- Finally, go back to the strip that you cut in the beginning, trim it down by about a half an inch. Curl it up in a circular shape and glue it to the top of your bell.
- Add twine and continue making more bells hanging them a different heights until you have a nice collection, mine is a group of six bells.
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Lee Portnoy on Nov 11, 2020
Very cute! If anyone is "skeeved" over the idea of using toilet paper rolls, just use paper towel rolls instead.
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